Douglas College swept the PacWest men’s volleyball regular season awards, now comes the hard part.
The PacWest league champs earned a bye into the provincial college championships and will meet the quarter-final winner between Columbia Bible College and University of the Fraser Valley in the semifinal at Camosun College on Friday.
Both CBC and Fraser Valley enjoyed some limited success against the nation’s No. 1-ranked Royals this season.
Most recently, CBC took Douglas to five sets before dropping its next-to-last game of the season a week ago.
“Both teams have talented kids who have been in their programs for a while. Either team will be a challenge,” said Douglas head coach Brad Hudson, who was named PacWest coach of the year.
Douglas also boasts its share of talented players, with second-year outside hitter George Thompson named PacWest player of the year and Langley outside hitter Carson Heppell earning rookie of the year honours.
Freshman Matt Santema joined Thompson on the PacWest first all-star team, while Tristan Loewen also made the all-rookie squad.
Third-year middle Scott Devlin, who led the league with 100 blocks, was a second team selection.
The Royals finished the regular season with a 21-3 record, despite replacing five of seven starters this season.
But the playoffs are a whole different season, said Hudson, who took Douglas to the nationals last year after entering the PacWest provincials as a third seed.
“The guys understand that,” Hudson said, adding the team prefers playing for points and with momentum rather than focusing on the outcome.
“We try to play good volleyball for as long periods of time as possible,” he said. “We have really high character kids and I believe in what we do.”
The Douglas women’s team also slipped into the provincials as the No.6 seed.
Juliana Penner was named a second team all-star for Douglas, while first-year’s Jessica Funk and Georgia Hurry made all-rookie selection.
